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Raonaid
Joined: 19 Mar 2009
Posts: 2
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 Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 6:24 am Post subject: General Malaysia Questions |
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Hi all,
I'm thinking about moving to Malaysia (KL) at the end of this year. I'm a CELTA qualified teacher with one year experience teaching in a private language school in Istanbul. I have a few questions about ESL teaching in Malaysia, especially KL:
What are the teaching hours for ESL teachers in private language schools such as ELS and IH?
Do teachers get two consecutive days off every week and is it easy to go travelling on your days off?
How many holidays do teachers get?
Can a teacher on 2000 per month afford to go travelling around the country?
And lastly, is it possible to secure employment before moving?
Thanks a lot
Raonaid |
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Jati
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
Posts: 155
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 1:24 pm Post subject: Re: General Malaysia Questions |
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| Raonaid wrote: |
Hi all,
I'm thinking about moving to Malaysia (KL) at the end of this year. I'm a CELTA qualified teacher with one year experience teaching in a private language school in Istanbul. I have a few questions about ESL teaching in Malaysia, especially KL:
What are the teaching hours for ESL teachers in private language schools such as ELS and IH?
Do teachers get two consecutive days off every week and is it easy to go travelling on your days off?
How many holidays do teachers get?
Can a teacher on 2000 per month afford to go travelling around the country?
And lastly, is it possible to secure employment before moving?
Thanks a lot
Raonaid |
All good questions.
I don't know too much about the private language schools other than the International House, where I studied Intermediate Malay for a short period of time. I remember the classes being offered in the evening and on weekends, for working adults. They certainly have some day-time classes, but probably you are looking at odd-hours, not the usual 9-5 shift of regular schools.
Normally school-age kids are in their government schools during the normal daytime hours. (Many people offer tuition to school kids, but that is almost all in the evening and on weekends.)
A salary of RM2,000 for KL is a bit on the low side and you might be pressed to do much travel. A link house rents in the RM1,300-2,000 range with apartments being not too much less. Of course, using a motorcycle is both cheaper and easier for getting around. I can't see someone maintaining a car at such a low salary level.
Malaysian teachers get around 14 holidays a year, plus whatever the school gives them above that. (E.g., I get 25 days PLUS the 14. Not too bad.) But, again, private language schools like to offer school-break and holiday tuition classes so that might be your busy time.
If you do work a normal week (Monday-Friday) you can travel on the two weekend days. The east coast is only 3 hours from KL (3 1/2 by bus). Malacca to the south is about 1 1/2 hours. Towns to the north are within a half day's drive. It used to be we all had to work at least half of Saturday and so few people went holidaying in their own country. That has changed thankfully.
You should be able to get some kind of verbal commitment from a school if you contact them by email and telephone (use skype). Do you have a degree? An international school near me (on the east coast) has been bugging me about qualified (i.e., degreed) teachers, but I have no names to give them. It is a small school (30) that caters to mostly the children of expat factory managers.
If you have any other specific questions, there are several of us on this forum that would be glad to help. |
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Raonaid
Joined: 19 Mar 2009
Posts: 2
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 1:33 pm Post subject: Thanks |
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Thanks for the advice. I really appreciate it. I do have a degree BA(hons) Communication Studies from Queen Margaret University in Edinburgh.
What is the cost of living like in KL? I'm particularly interested in the cost of rent/bills and food.
Thanks again
Raonaid |
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Jati
Joined: 11 Mar 2008
Posts: 155
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| Posted: Sat Mar 21, 2009 1:50 pm Post subject: |
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Look through some of the other threads further down. There is price info from other posters in response to similar questions.
Rentals usually run in the RM1000-2000 range for both apartments and houses. Of course, if you can rent only a room (i.e., share a house with others), you can get this price down below 1000.
Food is quite cheap, but figure at least RM500 per month. If you like to eat out a lot (and most Malaysians do), then it depends upon whether you go for hawker/local food (cheap, RM5-20 per meal) or the franchise and upscale restaurants (RM10 up).
Cars are the other major issue. Car prices are equivalent to what is paid in the west and insurance can be a bit high also. I used a motorcycle for the four plus years that I lived in KL and I am still alive. A motorcycle solves three main issues: (1) price of petrol, (2) where do I park?, (3) how do I handle the near-constant traffic slow-downs?
Medical insurance is quite cheap especially if you are still young. Cheaper still are visits to the ubiquitous clinics. For example, I just paid for my once-every-two-year physical for my teaching permit and it was only RM80 which included a chest x-ray. Mostly, clinic visits run RM40-60 including common medicine.
Where did you get the idea that a salary would be around RM2000? Curious, because you should be able to get a figure higher than that, perhaps RM2,800-3,500.
If you are interested in teaching at an international school (junior- and senior-high school level) on the east coast, please PM me and I can give you the specific details. I know the owner/Principal of the school and he constantly asks me for referrals. |
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